Massively

Dear God, do these people just like to hear themselves talk? PC games have proven that you can get *significant money* out of gamers *after* the initial sale. Blizzard charges $15 a month and millions happily dole it out. Hell, many even spend $30-$60 so that they can have additional account either in WoW or in other subscription games.

Don't even get me started about how Steam has changed the shape of the gaming world. Sony and Microsoft WISH they could do anything like Steam considering the amount of *full* games they have available for download and the ease with which they are purchased/acquired. Yeah, yeah all kinds of doom and gloom indeed. Listen, it's cool that console gaming is appealing to a wide spectrum of people and that it's 10x easier than trying to build your own PC, keep it updated, and not get your account "haXX0red" or something but the same thing that makes consoles compelling because of their ease of use also makes them technological dinosaurs and inherently limited in their functionality.

I applaud Nintendo for what they are doing keeping to console roots while still managing to innovate but Sony and Microsoft are going down the "convergence" road and guess where it ends? PC's baby. When consoles cost as much as they do then people start to wonder why they can't do more than play games and movies.

Oh, and using a gamepad for a FPS is just dumb also. Once my friends have a mouse or *gasp* something better for their FPS games then I will concede that they are even getting to the point where they might be equal with PC's. =- P

Viva la PC!!!

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Honestly, and I know this sounds petty to throw out there, but I think Molyneux is bitter that his revolutionary ideas can't survive the development and implementation phases, and so they fizzle and pop once they hit the market.

If you want to see change in the industry, usher in that change. It's not like he isn't in a position to make ripples in the pond. If Black and White had been half the game he promised to us, we would have flocked to him like we will invariably flock to Spore.

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I just don't understand the thinking behind opinions like these. How does the success of the Sims franchise have a negative impact on an FPS or and RPG? The majority of Sims player are non-tradional gamers... Did the Sims drive away all the hardcore PC Gamers and make them buy 360s?

Quit making excuses for the garbage you're aborting onto the PC market. If you release your game on the PC 6+ months after it's put out on console, expect the sales to be garbage. If you constantly promise the moon and then fail to deliver it, expect people to stop falling for your hype at some point.

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This guy is at best an overly egotistic optimist who delusionaly believes in his own power to inspire developers to produce his impractical grandiose ideas, and at worst a sociopath who knowingly misleads media, over-hypes his games to the point where development becomes impossible, and even flat-out lies for his own personal gain--if the wikipedia entry about him is to be believed...

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How lame. Boooo

Why don't you go develop a game worth playing and then maybe you can sell it. Hogging sales? Hahahahaha

If I am your competition, you better believe I want to hog up your sales. Do you expect someone like Blizzard to gimp their franchise so that your company has a chance to "innovate."

Sounds like a lame attempt to blame someone else for your lack of success. Peter Molyneux should meet up with Richard Garriott and they can go and stroke each other's "egos" while they think of how much money they could have made if they only made a game as popular as WoW.

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Instead of blaming WoW he should try making a good game.

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I think you all are possibly missing the point in whole or in part. When he says “sucking the air out of the PC market” I do not see it as saying making the Market less that it is in an economic sense. it is more of an issue of a focus of attention on one method of game design.

The truth of WoW is that it was typical even when it cam out. It is a reiteration of previous systems. It is not unique. Its success can be more attributed to social pressures than game play superiority, because it is not actually superior... the game play is common.

There are quite a few games out there that are simpler and a small number that could be considered superior to WoW. I think all he is saying is that the media focus on WoW is detracting from current games and will effect the reception of future games regardless of potential superior quality.

I think he misses the mark nothing but the impact of social influence on game reception. It is important to restate the phrase “WoW is the new golf”. I personally do not play WoW or golf for the same reason: they are both too boring. Fact remains more people play golf and WoW than any other game in their genera because both are more social. The difference is the social of WoW is a byproduct that was expanded upon while it is integral to casual golf.

The poke at Sims is also probably the result of a misinterpretation of the game. the demographic of Sims is much younger. Tweens are more into socializing and climbing the “popularity ladder” which is exactly what Sims simulates, and quite well.


I cannot say that, even in his potential misinterpretation, he is precisely wrong. The bandwagon is a really hard social concept to defeat. Advertising and marketing has centuries implemented methodologies that make “the bandwagon” more than a goal of capitalism, it is now a part of being a citizen of many cultures of our world. WoW, more than Sims, is a bandwagon event. When a large percentage of people are on a bandwagon it is hard to get them and others who see the bandwagon to look in another direction, at something new.

There are millions more supporters of WoW so the other voices are being drowned out by shear numbers. Sims is not actually at the top of the heap (Hobo Hotel probably is at the top of the tween stack internationally). Innovation is sorely needed but it will have to actually be mass marketed to compete with the sociality of WoW. The WoW killer will have to be both innovating in game play and story telling AND backed by a stellar marketing campaign...

The “sucking the air out of the PC market” is not about inability to make a good game and make lots of money as much as it is about saying the population of players and developers need to stop staring in the bright floodlight (WoW) to realize it is not the sun. that star is someplace else and is only one among constellations of other stars.

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Is this guy for real? He hasn't made a decent game in what? 10 years?

He wishes a game he made would have been as good as the Sims or WoW.

And as for Cliffy B. He does what at Epic Games exactly? " ok guys, you know that green laser weapon we've used for the last 6 years. Lets make it have pretty sparkles this year". Can we even take this man seriously? Maybe if they made something themselves for PC that wasn't just a rehash of the same lame game they've made for years then the PC industry wouldn't be in "disarray" as he says.

Tell me if I'm wrong on this but wasn't this last holiday season completely PACKED with quality PC titles? I know I for one was totally addicted to many great games in the past 6 months alone.

These two need to get a clue.

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If you want to sell me a game, make a good game. I'll look up from WoW when that happens, just as I did with Portal.

If the air is being sucked out of the game market, its the publishers doing the sucking.

I find it hilarious that he claims the formerly innovative developers are now just copying what works. That describes the entire game industry for the last 15 years, and its called shovelware.

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Geez, the WoW nerds really got riled up over this one. You guys need to get off your epic flying mounts and listen to what this guy is saying. WoW is what it is, the Sims are 18 re-hashed games all with the same, lame presentation. Molyneux is an innovator. I don't blame him for being disappointed with the current PC market.

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